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The Johnstown Flood is just one of many disasters to hit the United States.  The journal “Disaster Tourism and the Melodrama of Authenticity: Revisiting the 1889 Johnstown Flood” by Emily Godbey goes on to discuss several ideas that arose after this disaster.  For example Godbey points out the fact that even though the Johnstown Flood is “commonly referred to as a natural disaster, the Johnstown Flood was clearly man made”. (pg. 276)  She pointed out that the Conemaugh Dam had been patched with horse manure and that the relief pipes were sold as scrap metal.  These man made mistakes among other things led to the dam’s collapse.  Through this tragedy Godbey goes on to explain this weird amusement for “disaster tourism”.  The  disaster brought about a curiosity in  people from other parts of the state.  People flocked to Johnstown through the Baltimore  & Ohio railroads.  As a matter a fact the Baltimore & Ohio rail roads let tourists come into Johnstown, when word was put out that tourists were not welcome to come to Johnstown because they were getting so many tourist wanting to see the devastation and aftermath of the Flood. The amount of tourists was so much that people were getting in the way of the relief groups.  Trains were getting super packed and the claim was made that the majority of people on these trains were tourists instead of people from disaster relief.  What brought about this much attention to Johnstown was newspaper coverage of the Flood. Just like my class peer jessicabode mentions in her post “Setting Fire- “Did the Cow Do it?” that “Bales brings up different viewpoints throughout the article about what supposedly happened with Harry Albert Musham’s take on the events of the fire.” Godbey views the Johnstown Flood through different view points in her journal.  She mentions how people made money off it by selling excursion packages that would show tourists different sites of the aftermath.  Not only that but relics were also sold as souvenirs.  She also went on to make the comparison that people were interested in seeing the Johnstown Flood’s aftermath just like people today go to visit Holocaust museums and the concentration camps.  These places brought about  mass deaths, but yet people go on to visit such places every year.  Her journal made me think about my interests in such things like the Holocaust and World War II and why it is that I am so interested in these things.